With Slash, Motorhead, Aerosmith...
That moment at a festival when you discover your new favourite band is something special.
As the first band on the main stage today, LA’s Dommin look a little out of synch with the rest of the weekend's metal acts. But it doesn’t take Kristofer Dommin and the rest of his Goth-rock ghouls to win over the entire crowd with beautiful new single ‘Tonight’ and incendiary cover of ‘I Just Died In Your Arms Tonight’ - possibly one of the best covers of the entire weekend (and there were a fair flippin’ few.) Just as there is that incredible new musical discovery, there is also the one that actually makes your ears erode and drop off.
Enemo-J don’t just have a terrible name, but indeed all the trappings of particularly bad teenage acne-riddled bedroom metal band. As the instrumentalists butcher and crash their way through all manner of Sepultura inspired drivel, it’s the singers that hold the true comedy value. With one gigantic, but remarkably agile child-singer and one tiny child-singer who both sound exactly the same the theories start flying. Maybe the small one is back up in case the big one dies of overexertion. Maybe the big one is an amoeba whose leg broke off which spawned the smaller one. Maybe the small one is a tasty snack for the bigger one? (Harsh, I’ll stop now.) Whatever the case, their crowd consists of their classmates and other kids who are too young to have developed any discernible taste yet.
Slash takes to the main stage to do what he does best-say nothing and play geetar like there truly is no tomorrow. The bands own tracks aren’t so hot and though singer Myles Kennedy (of Alter Bridge) makes a decent stab at trying to sound like Axel, it all just sounds like slightly sordid Guns n Roses karaoke. Just when you think it can’t get any more clichéd, someone rolls out Lemmy for a song or two. Ending on Velvet Revolver’s 'Slither' doesn’t do them any credit either. But one can only speculate its all for the benefit of making ex-Velvet Revolver singer Scott Weilands piss boil backstage.
Clearly God hates Billy Idol. How else can the torrential freak rainstorm pouring from the skies be explained? Maybe God didn’t appreciate his cameo in the Wedding Singer or he was bored of waiting for Billy to sing ‘Rebel Yell’. Whatever the case, Mr Idol does a stellar job of keeping the now-drenched crowds entertained before rock’s favourite stalwarts Motorhead step up. They could probably come on and play 'Ace of Spades' six times over and no one would object or necessarily notice. Slash returns the guest appearance favour and does a bit of his geetaring mid-set (the word guitar doesn’t quite feel special enough for Slash). But for the most part, it’s all background noise.
This is Stone Temple Pilots first UK gig in ten years and doesn’t it show. The DeLeo brothers on guitar and bass look like the years of dealing with singer Scott Weiland have taken their toll, but musically they’re as mind-blowing and as underrated as ever. As Weiland writhes about and launches into ‘Vaseline’, it's evident that years of self-abuse have left his once faultless voice a little lacklustre. New songs like 'Between the Lines' and 'Hickory Dichotomy' aren’t about to win them any new fans, but blazing renditions of early material like 'Crackerman' and 'Dead and Bloated' are what STP are all about. Whatever state Weiland finds himself in (at this point its hard to decipher exactly what he’s on, if anything), the entire band are true showmen in every way and it’s always a pleasure to see them.
Being the final Download headline band is quite an honour and Aerosmith put AC/DC’s ego soaked performance to shame with what will go down as one of the best Donington performances ever. Steven Tyler, ever the front man dressed in a sequin robe, is note-perfect and sublime throughout opener ‘Love in an Elevator’ and rousing renditions of ‘Crazy’ and ‘Don’t Want To Miss a Thing.’ They’re a band you could spend all day watching, transfixed and mesmerized by their sheer energy. Let's not forget these men are in their 60s, but as they come back for the encore of ‘Sing for the Moment’ and ‘Walk this Way’, you know this is the band that everyone will be compared to next year at Download 2011 and rightly so.
Words by Anna Brown
Photo by Joel Knight
View an accompanying photo gallery from Download HERE.
As the first band on the main stage today, LA’s Dommin look a little out of synch with the rest of the weekend's metal acts. But it doesn’t take Kristofer Dommin and the rest of his Goth-rock ghouls to win over the entire crowd with beautiful new single ‘Tonight’ and incendiary cover of ‘I Just Died In Your Arms Tonight’ - possibly one of the best covers of the entire weekend (and there were a fair flippin’ few.) Just as there is that incredible new musical discovery, there is also the one that actually makes your ears erode and drop off.
Enemo-J don’t just have a terrible name, but indeed all the trappings of particularly bad teenage acne-riddled bedroom metal band. As the instrumentalists butcher and crash their way through all manner of Sepultura inspired drivel, it’s the singers that hold the true comedy value. With one gigantic, but remarkably agile child-singer and one tiny child-singer who both sound exactly the same the theories start flying. Maybe the small one is back up in case the big one dies of overexertion. Maybe the big one is an amoeba whose leg broke off which spawned the smaller one. Maybe the small one is a tasty snack for the bigger one? (Harsh, I’ll stop now.) Whatever the case, their crowd consists of their classmates and other kids who are too young to have developed any discernible taste yet.
Slash takes to the main stage to do what he does best-say nothing and play geetar like there truly is no tomorrow. The bands own tracks aren’t so hot and though singer Myles Kennedy (of Alter Bridge) makes a decent stab at trying to sound like Axel, it all just sounds like slightly sordid Guns n Roses karaoke. Just when you think it can’t get any more clichéd, someone rolls out Lemmy for a song or two. Ending on Velvet Revolver’s 'Slither' doesn’t do them any credit either. But one can only speculate its all for the benefit of making ex-Velvet Revolver singer Scott Weilands piss boil backstage.
Clearly God hates Billy Idol. How else can the torrential freak rainstorm pouring from the skies be explained? Maybe God didn’t appreciate his cameo in the Wedding Singer or he was bored of waiting for Billy to sing ‘Rebel Yell’. Whatever the case, Mr Idol does a stellar job of keeping the now-drenched crowds entertained before rock’s favourite stalwarts Motorhead step up. They could probably come on and play 'Ace of Spades' six times over and no one would object or necessarily notice. Slash returns the guest appearance favour and does a bit of his geetaring mid-set (the word guitar doesn’t quite feel special enough for Slash). But for the most part, it’s all background noise.
This is Stone Temple Pilots first UK gig in ten years and doesn’t it show. The DeLeo brothers on guitar and bass look like the years of dealing with singer Scott Weiland have taken their toll, but musically they’re as mind-blowing and as underrated as ever. As Weiland writhes about and launches into ‘Vaseline’, it's evident that years of self-abuse have left his once faultless voice a little lacklustre. New songs like 'Between the Lines' and 'Hickory Dichotomy' aren’t about to win them any new fans, but blazing renditions of early material like 'Crackerman' and 'Dead and Bloated' are what STP are all about. Whatever state Weiland finds himself in (at this point its hard to decipher exactly what he’s on, if anything), the entire band are true showmen in every way and it’s always a pleasure to see them.
Being the final Download headline band is quite an honour and Aerosmith put AC/DC’s ego soaked performance to shame with what will go down as one of the best Donington performances ever. Steven Tyler, ever the front man dressed in a sequin robe, is note-perfect and sublime throughout opener ‘Love in an Elevator’ and rousing renditions of ‘Crazy’ and ‘Don’t Want To Miss a Thing.’ They’re a band you could spend all day watching, transfixed and mesmerized by their sheer energy. Let's not forget these men are in their 60s, but as they come back for the encore of ‘Sing for the Moment’ and ‘Walk this Way’, you know this is the band that everyone will be compared to next year at Download 2011 and rightly so.
Words by Anna Brown
Photo by Joel Knight
View an accompanying photo gallery from Download HERE.
Slash
